In medical practice Veress needles are employed in laparoscopic surgery for penetrating the outer wall of a body cavity for the purpose of insufflation or aspiration of the cavity. Veress needles generally comprise an outer tube, usually formed of stainless steel, having a sharp distal end. An inner rod having a blunt distal end is slidably supported within the outer tube and is spring biased toward extension in the direction of the distal end of the assembly.
To open a body cavity, the needle is pushed against the wall of the cavity so that the blunt tip of the inner rod retracts against the spring bias relative to the outer cutting tube, allowing the sharp end to pierce the wall of the body cavity. Once the outer tube penetrates the body wall, the inner rod is free to move through the body wall so that the blunt end projects beyond the sharp end of the outer tube and protects any internal organs from puncture.
When the needle has penetrated the wall, the surgeon must terminate the application of pressure to protect the internal organs. My pending patent application Ser. No. 12/693,079 discloses a Veress needle assembly including an illumination system for providing light at the distal end of the Veress needle. The inner rod of the Veress needle may be made of a light-conducting plastic which is illuminated through a bright, small illumination source such as an LED, preferably located at the proximal end of the assembly, or by an illumination source disposed at the blunt end of the inner tube which is powered by electrical leads passing through the tube from the proximal end. The illumination source at the distal end of the assembly is usually visible through the cavity wall so that the operator may determine when the distal end of the tube has penetrated the wall. However, in some cases it may be difficult to see the distal end light source from the exterior of the body.